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ERLNLSSIMO K I lO I h\ flSMMO PRINCIPI AC lX>Ml\ci: 
r>oMi\oc.\ir\vo ^[JOI pmo dg -s\ j-cokvm oothorvm tx v.\mj-\ -;^\ 

IOK\MRtOI MAOVO PKISCII'I H MAN UI.^, U\'C 1 KS IhMMA. r I t\ 
KM I •; IKIMISO INl.HI •. r. H\ Mil IMti OFrtRT L'Ot KiStm A,*ai,»^ 



'hM 



GusTAF II. Adolph. Kopparstick af Lucas Kiliax. 1632. 
Kiiir/ of Sweden. 1611-16-ii. 



What Has 

Sweden Done for the 

United States? 




Bg LARS P. NELSON 



Second Edition 



PRICE 50 CENTS 






Copyright, i^, 
Bv LARS P. NELSON 



/ 

)GI,Mf5'''560 



Press of Augustana Book Concern 
Rock Island, III. 
1917 



m 25 >9<7 




STATUE OF AXEL OXENSTJERNA AT KNIGHTS' HALL LN STOCKHOLM 







AIEMORIAL TABLE JN SOUTH ENTRANCE 
OF THE CITY HALL, PHILADELPKL-\ 




What Has Sweden Done for the 
United States? 

^^ HE first attention given by the Swedish Government to the country now 
comprising the United States is recorded in a letter given by King 
Gustaf Adolph in 1624, to Willem Usselinx of Holland, authorizing 
him to organize a "company to trade in Asia, Africa, America and 
Magellanica." Given at Stockholm the 21st of December, 1624. The following 
year a company was organized and named "The Royal Swedish General Trading 
Company, to do business in Asia, Africa, Amei'ica and Magellanica." Part of its 
prospectus reads: "It must be well considered and weighed that God Almighty, in 
his incomprehensible wisdom and providence, has so foreordained and arranged 
that all which is necessary for the welfare and sustenance of mankind is not 
found in one place, unless God has blesssd with his gifts each country by itself. 
Consequently what is wanting in one country abounds in the other, and one country 
can not do without another." 

The next year, 1626, the King issued a charter to the company, entitled 
"Charter or Privilege, which the Mighty and most noble Prince and Lord, Gustaf 
Adolph, King of Sweden, the Gothes and Vendes, Grand Duke of Finland, etc., has 
graciously given by letters patent to the newly established Swedish South Com- 
pany." Its object is stated in a statesmanlike and Christian manner, thus: 
"Whereas, we find that it will considerably add to the welfare of our kingdom and 
of our subjects, and that it is necessary that the commerce, trades and navigation 
in our lands and territories should grow, be increased and improved by all suitable 
means ; and whereas, by the reports of experienced and trustworthy men we have 
received reliable and certain intelligence that there are in Africa, America, and 
Magellanica, or terra Australis, many rich countries and islands, with which it 
may not only be possible to carry on a large commerce from our kingdom, but it 
is also most likely that the people in those lands may be made more civilized and 
taught moraUti) and the Christian religion, by the mutual intercourse and trade; 
therefore, we have maturely considered and as far as in our power concluded 
that the advantages, profits and welfare of our kingdom and faithful subjects, 
besides the further propagation of the holy gospel, will be much improved and 
increased by the discovery of new commercial relations and navigation," etc. The 
thirty-first article of this charter shows how earnest the King was about this 
business. It reads: "In order to manifest the great pleasure which we have in 



Swedish Colonization in America 

the progress of this company, we promise that we will subscribe and invest a sum 
of four hundred thousand dalers, counting thirty-two round pieces to a daler, 
which we will risk for our own account, dividing profit and loss with the others." 
The charter is dated, "Royal Palace at Stockholm, in the one thousandth six hun- 
dreth and six and twentieth year after the birth of God's son, the 14th of June, 
1626." 

(Signed) Gustaf Adolph. 

Speaking about the motives that prompted Gustaf Adolph in preparing for 
colonization in America, Dr. Stille, of Philadelphia, says: 

"It was not merely as a commercial enterprise that Gustaf Adolph planned to found a 
colony in America. If we wish to understand the real significance of the scheme, its paramount 
and controlling impulse, we must look upon the colony as the outgrowth of the Thirty Years' 
War, and its estahlishment as a remedy- for some of the manifold evils of that war, which had 
suggested itself to the minds of Gustaf Adolph and his Chancellor, Oxenstjerna. 

"A glance at contemporary history shows how novel and comprehensive were the views 
of colonization held by the King. The Protestants of Germany and Denmark were at that 
time in the midst of a pitiless storm, exposed to all its fury. The Thirty Years' War — unex- 
ampled in liistory for the cruel sufferings inflicted upon non-combatants — was at its height. 
The Protestants were yielding e\erywhere ; nothing could resist the military power of Wallen- 
stein. who, supporting his army upon the pillage of the country, pressed forward to the shores 
of the Baltic, with the intention of making that sea an Austrian lake. The Protestant leaders — 
Mansfeld, Christian of Brunswick, the King of Denmark — were all defeated, and their follow- 
ers were a mass of fugitives fleeing toward the North and imploring succor. Gustaf had not 
yet embarked in the German war, but his heart was full of sympathy for the cause in which 
these poor people were suffering, and this scheme of colonization occurred to him as a practical 
method of reducing the horrors which he was forced to witness. 

"The faith of the King in the wisdom of tiiis scheme never wavered. In the hour of his 
complete triumph over his enemies he begged the German princes whom he had rescued from 
ruin to permit their subjects to come to America and live there under the protection of his 
powerful arm. He spoke to them just before the battle of Liitzen of the proposed colony, 
which he called 'the Jewel of his Crown,' and after he had fallen a martyr to the cause of 
Protestantism on that field, his Chancellor, acting, as he said, upon the express desire of the 
dead King, renewed the patent for the colony, extended its benefits more fully to Germany, and 
secured the oflFicial confirmation of its provisions by the diet of Frankfurt. 

"The colony that came to these shores in 1638 was not exactly the colon\ planned by the 
great King. The commanding genius that could foresee the permanent settlement of a free state 
here, based upon the principles of religious toleration — the same principles in defense of which 
Swedish blood was poured out like water upon the plains of Germany — had been removed from 
this world. It has been said that the principle of religious toleration which was agreed to at 
the peace of Westphalia, in 1648, and afterward became part of the public law of Europe, is 
the cornerstone of our modern civilization, and that it has been worth more to the world than 
all the blood that was shed to establish it. With this conflict and this victory the name and 

8 



T.iK Peace of Westphalia 



fame of Gustaf Adolph is inseparably associatjd ; and glorying in that memory, we will also 
remember that when during the long struggle he sometimes feared that liberty of conscience 
could never be established upon an enduring ba is in Europe, his thoughts turned to America 
as the country where his cherished ideal of hunan society, so far in advance of the civilization 
of the age in which he lived, might become a glorious realit}." 

The treaty of peace of Westphalia which terminated the Thirty Years' War 
is one of the great historical mileposts in human progress, and not only the Prot- 
estant world, but Christendom as a whole, is under lasting obligation to the men 
and the nation who contributed 
to that peace and compelled the 
making of that treaty; and of 
all the human agencies which 
were employed and worked out 
that result, Gustaf Adolph and 
the 83,000 Swedes who laid 
down their lives on German bat- 
lefields during eighteen years of 
that horrible war, are entitled 
to the first consideration. The 
peace of Westphalia consists of 
two treaties, one between Swe- 
den and the Austrian Emperor, 
signed at Osnabriick, and one 
between France and the Em- 
peror, signed at Miinster. The 
two together make the famous 
compact designated in history 
as "The Peace of Westphalia," 
but the article that has made 
this peace famou.s — made it the "cornerstone of our modern civilization" — appears 
only in the Swedish treaty. It is the fourth article, and it stipulates that the peace 
treaty of Augsburg of 1555, which established liberty of worship for the Luther- 
ans, shall be left inviolate and confirmed, and its provisions and benefits shall be 
extended to the Reformed Church (the Calvinists), so that the three churches — the 
Catholic, Lutheran and Reformed — shall have equal rights, eqiialitas exacta mii- 
tuaqite. 

This principle of religious toleration, of liberty to worship God according to the 
dictates of men's consciences, was insisted upon and put into the treaty by the 



t 




AXEL OXENSTJERNA 

Prime Minister and Chnnci'Uor of Sweden. Iiill-lii.'i 



Colonij Founded by Oxenstjerna, 1638 

Swedish delegates, Johan Oxenstjerna (son of the Chancellor) and Johan Adler 
Salvius. They were the chief representatives of the Protestants, and the Emperor 
and all the Catholic delegates from Austria, France, Spain and Italy had to submit 
and consent to the incorporation in the treaty of this great principle, much as it 
was against their will to do so. Both on the battlefield and in the councils of state 
Sweden wrought for the oppressed ; she sent her statesmen to plead with the mighty, 
and her soldiers to fight with their armies, with equal success. The world can never 
repay her for the great sacrifice of human lives which she laid down upon the altar 
of humanity in the Thirty Years' War. To no natio)i or people on earth has it been 
given to render such great service to hnma)iitii as that rendered b>i the Sivedish 
nation and people by fighting through the Thirty Years' War to success and thereby 
acquiring and establishing civil and religious liberty for mankind. 

The death of the King, November 6, 1632, prevented him from realizing his 
plan of American colonization, but he left it a legacy to his Secretary of State, the 
famous chancellor. Axel Oxenstjerna, by whom the project was carried out and the 
American Colonv established. 



After the death of Gustaf Adolph, his daughter Christina — then only six years 
old — was proclaimed Queen, and a regency, with Oxenstjerna at the head, was ap- 
pointed, which carried on the government during the Queen's minority. It was 
during this period, and under the direction of the Chancellor, that the Swedish Col- 
ony on the banks of the Delaware was founded in 1638. 

Ten expeditions in fifteen ships were sent by Sweden to America from 1637 
to 1654, during the time that Oxenstjerna, as Prime Minister and Chancellor, ruled 
^Sweden. His instructions to Governor Printz — who was sent out in 1643 — says 
an American author, Edward Armstrong, "are minute and exhibit great knowledge 
upon the river, combined with great shrewdness and practical good sense. They 
form the most important State paper yst discovered relating to the settlement 
upon our shores, as connected with this period of our annals." 

/^ William Penn has been much praised for his treatment of the Indians, but 
few people know that Penn's Indian policy was originated by Axel Oxenstjerna, 
and that Penn merely adapted it from the Swedes, who had practiced it for more 
than forty years before Penn came into the country. When Minuit landed on 
Christina Creek with the first expedition he immediately sought the Indian chiefs 
who were in possession of the shores of the river, and bought and paid liberally for 

\ the land he wanted, on which to settle the colony. His orders from the Swedish 

lO 



Su'edish Indian PoUcij Adopted bi/ Penn 

Government were "to buy the land from the Indians and perfect the title by im- 
mediate settlement on it, and live in peace, amity and good fellowship with them." 
This policy was emphasized by the instructions to Governor Printz, dictated by 
Oxenstjerna, the ninth article of which reads as follows: "The wild nations bord- 
ering on all sides, the Governor shall understand how to treat with all humanity 
and respect, that no violence or wrong be done to them by Her Royal Majesty or 




SVENSKSTENEN, WILMINGTON, DELAWARE 



her subjects ; but he shall rather, at every opportunity, exert himself, that the 
same wild people may gradually be instructed in the truths and worship of the 
Christian religion, and in other ways be brought to civilization and a good gov- 
ernment," etc. 

Think of this — the government of Sweden instructs and commands its officers 
and agents to treat the Indians u-ith humanity and respect, to buy what they want 



II 



SivecJish Mi.-^sion in America 



from them, and not to steal it; to try to convert them to Christianity and a 
good life. William Penn was shrewd enough to see that this sort of honesty was 
the best policy, hence he adopted it, with profit to himself and all concerned. 

The progress of the colony, notwithstanding the change of masters, from Swed- 
ish to Dutch and from Dutch to English, was continuous and solid. The Swedes 
took root in the new soil and were the fi.'.st to plant Christian civilization in Penn- 
sylvania and Delaware. They flourished 
and increased, raising big families, in- 
termarried lai'gely with the English 
that came under William Penn, and are 
the ancestors of a great part of the 
present inhabitants of Pennsylvania, 
New Jersey, Delaware and other states. 

Long after all political connection 
between the mother country and the 
colony had ceased the Swedish Govern- 
ment sent ministers of the gospel and 
thousands of books to the colony. 
"There is not upon record" — says an 
American author, William M. Reynolds 
— "a more remarkable instance of dis- 
interested care for its expatriated citi- 
zens than that of the Swedish Govern- 
ment for these members of its race, no 
longer bound to it by any political ties, 
and separated from it by the wide ex- 
panse of the Atlantic. From 1696 to 
1786 the Swedish Government sent to 
the churches on the Delaware no less 
than thirty-two clergymen, giving them 
outfits and paying the expenses of their 
voyage from Sweden to America, as also of their return voyage, when, after many 
years of faithful labor, they returned to their native land, where they were again 
received with open arms, and often invested with pastorates of the most desirable 
character. How much money the Swedish Government thus expended it is now 
impossible to determine, but the amount cannot have been less than $100,000, and 
may have reached double that amount. The whole of it was given without thought 




DR. JESPER SVEDBERG 

Bishop of Skara. Sioeden, 170,i-n,l'>. Superintendent 
of the Sivedish Mission in America. JG!)6-n3o. 



12 



John Morton 



of material return or profit from the investment. It must also be borne in mind 
that money was scarce during that period, and that Sweden was then in straight- 
ened circumstances, and frequently suflFered from financial embarrassment. The 
country, exhausted by the expenditure of blood and treaure in the Thirty Years' War, 

was brought to the verge 

of bankruptcy by the dis- 
astrous conclusion of the 
reign of Charles XII. We 
cannot, therefore, but 
admire the liberality of 
Sweden toward the de- 
scendants of the colonists 
whom, in the days of her 
power and prosperity, 
she sent forth to Amer- 
ica, but whose spiritual 
necessities she was anx- 
ious to provide for even 
in times of her own deep- 
est depression." 




^' 



Coming down from 
the early colonial to rev- 
olul^lonary times in 1776, 
we find one of the sons of 
the Swedish colonists 
sitting as judge in Up- 
land County, Pennsylva- 
nia. John Morton, sign- 
er of the Declaration of 
Independence, was the 
great-great-grandson of 

Marten Martensson, who arrived in the colony from Sweden with Governor Printz, 
in 1643. Morton was born in 1725, was well educated, became a member of the 
assembly of Pennsylvania and its speaker in 1772-1775. Soon after his entry into 
political life he attended the Stamp Act Congress in New York, in 1765. He was 



MAGISTER ERIC TOBIAS BJORK 

Pastor of Christina Congregation. Delaware. lC>!n-17/'i. Built Trinity 
Churili. Wilmingtoti. and dedicated it Trinitii Hundaii. IliHU. 



Sweden First to Moke Treaty irith United States, 1783 




high sheriff of the county in 1766-70, and in his later years president judge of 
common pleas, and a judge of the Supreme Court, as well as a member of the 
Continental Congress from its beginning, in 1774. On the question of separation 
from Great Britain the Pennsylvania delegation was divided. Franklin and Wilson 
voted aye ; Willing and Humphrey no ; Morris and Dickinson were absent. Taking 
his seat in the delegation late in July, Judge Morton showed his patriotism and 

courage by casting his vote for the Declara- 
tion, thus committing his state to the revolu- 
tion and offending a number of his friends 
who were royalists. The estrangement 
weighed upon his mind in his last hour, and 
he sent a message to his old friends to this 
effect: "Tell them they will live to see the 
day when they will acknowledge that my 
signing the Declaration of Independence was 
the most glorious service I ever rendered my 
country." He died in 1777, leaving a family 
of three sons and five daughters, and an 
honored name, of which we are all proud. 






x- 




JtJl^ 












/ 



Section of tlie signatures of the Declaration 
of Independence. 



I Sweden is the only power in Europe that 
voluntarily offered its friendship to the 
United States when they were struggling 
for independence, and long before it was 
^^recognized by Great Britain. The author of 
"Diplomacy of the United States," Boston, 
1826, says: "The conduct of Sweden was 
marked with great frankness of a very friendly character. The United States 
could not expect much from that country or suppose that her example could have 
a great deal of influence on other nations. But it was highly gratifying that a state 
renowned as Sweden always has been for the bravery and love of independence of 
her people, should manifest so great sympathy in the arduous struggles for liberty 
of a distant country." The proposal for a treaty was entirely unsought for on 
the part of the United States. The only account we have of the transaction is in 
one of the letters of Dr. Franklin. The Swedish minister at Paris, Count Gustaf 
Philip de Creutz, called on Dr. Franklin toward the end of June, 1782, by direction 
of his Sovereign, Gustaf III., to inquire if he were furnished with the necessary 



14 



United States Consul in Gothenburg 



powers to conclude a treaty with Sweden. In the course of the conversation he 

remarked that "it was a pleasure to him to think, and he hoped it would be 

remembered, that Sweden was the first power in Europe which had voluntarily 

offered its friendship to the United States without being solicited." Dr. Franklin 

communicated the inquiry of the Swedish Envoy to Congress, and instructions 

were at once sent him to agree to a treaty, which was concluded at Paris on April 

3, 1783, by Benjamin Franklin for 

the United States and Count Gustaf — ^ ^^ 

Philip de Creutz for Sweden. The 

treaty was ratified by Congress on 

July 29th, and a proclamation that 

the treaty was in force, and directing 

all the citizens and inhabitants, and 

more especially all officers and others 

in the service of the United States, 

to observe it, was issued by Congress 

on the 25th of September, 1783. 

Well, some one may remark, what 
did this amount to? A treaty with 
Sweden in those days did not benefit 
the United States very much. 

Let us see. The 26th article of the 
treaty stipulates that "The two con- 
tracting parties grant mutually the 
liberty of having each in the ports 
of each other consuls, vice consuls, 
agents and commissaries," etc., and 
thereby hangs a tale, a very pretty 
tale, which I will relate. 

In pursuance of this treaty and the particular article 26, cited above, the 
United States had appointed as its consul in Gothenburg, Sweden, Mr. Richard S. 
Smith, of Philadelphia. The time when he was stationed at Gothenburg was in 
the early part of the last century, during the time of the great Napoleonic wars of 
Europe. By the decrees of Berlin and Milano, and the British order in council, 
all ports in Europe were closed to neutral vessels save those of the Baltic. The 
United States, not being in the contest, had a great commerce with those Northern 
ports, and when there appeared one morning in the roadstead of Gothenburg an 
American vessel without a cargo, but with orders to call at Gothenburg and then 




GUSTAF III. 

King of Su'i'den. 7777-/7.'',.'. 



C'liiliuunl nil Ituijr /> 



15 




<:^^*/ca^^^^^ , /J 



GUSTAF \-. 

King o1 Sicerlcii. 'J9th ruler of the Kingdom of Sweden. 





WOODROW WILSON 

28th President of the United States. 



Saves American Ships from Capture bij the English in 1812 

hurry on farther to some Russian port in the Baltic, Mr. Smith detected in the 
mysterious appearance of this ship enough to satisfy him that war had broken out 
between the United States and Great Britain. Mr. Smith himself tells the story 
as follows : 

"In the month of July, i8l2, it was the law in Sweden that every vessel arriving from 
America should come to anchor in the quarantine harbor, fourteen miles from the city, and, being 
boarded by the master of ciuarantine, the necessary manifest of cargo, clearance, etc., were ex- 
hibited, and a memorandum thereof made and immediately dispatched by a boat to the proper 
health officer of the city. Being anxious to be prompth- advised of every arrival, I made arrange- 
ments with the man who navigated the boat between the station and the cit\- that he should 
exhibit all the papers to me of all American ships before he took them to the Health OfHce. 
(There was no breach of trust in this.) It so happened that on the morning of the 2?rd of 
Jul^-, 1812, between five and six o'clock, the quarantine boy brought me the papers of the pilot 
boat schooner Champlain, cleared by Minturn and Champlin, in ballast from New York to 
Eastport, Maine. It was at once clear to my mind that this vessel was dispatched with most 
important intelligence affecting the interests of this principal New York firm, that I did not 
hesitate a mcjment, but procured a boat and in less than an hour, with my consular commission 
in my pocket, I was on my wa\- to the quarantine ground. Arriving there, I called on an old 
officer in charge and was allowed to go out to the vessel. I was not allowed to go on board, 
and the old officer, therefore, passed my commission up to the captain of the schooner, who, 
having read it, said he recognized me as consul, but was a good deal annoyed at being detained 
even a day, before he coidd visit the city and forward important letters to various correspond- 
ents of his owners. I told him I would facilitate his intentions b\ all the means in my power, 
and added, that as there could be no doubt the information to be thus conveyed was of a char- 
acter highly important to all Americans in charge of vessels and property in neighboring ports, 
I thought he should communicate freel\- with me, whose duty it was to protect the interests of 
his countrymen within my reach. He said that, being intrusted with a commission affecting the 
private interests of the house who had dispatched the vessel, he was not at liberty to say more. 
Apprehending that he might not he willing to sa\- more or speak out in the presence of another, 
I asked the old Swede if he would land me on the rocks in sight of the schooner and allow me 
the use of his skiff, that I might have a confidential talk with the captain. Consenting to this, 
I rowed out alone in the boat and told the captain of the schooner that I feared war had been 
declared against England, and if so, I ought to be informed, as there were millions of dollars 
at stake, which I could protect and secure if I were clearly advised of the fact. He repeated his 
former assertion that he had a commission to perform for his owners, and he would not go 
beyond that. I directed his attention to a fleet of several hundred vessels lying in Winga Roads, 
distant a mile from the quarantine grounds. I told him I knew over fort\- American vessels 
in that fleet waiting English con\o\-, and of course under the guns of British cruisers. I told him 
the English had great facilities in receiving and forwarding all impcjrtant information affecting 
their interests, and that, doubtless, the English admiral would have the information within a 
day or two, and it would be a lasting sorrow to him to know that one word in confidence to me 
might have saved millions to his countrymen, which otherwise, by his silence, would be captured 
b\' an enemy. At this he was much agitated, and said that he could not, in that view of the 



John Ericsson 



case, remain silent. He said war was declared h\ an act of Congress on the 17th day of June, 
and that on the next day Commodore Rogers had sailed to look for British cruisers off Hali- 
fax, and no doubt hostilities had commenced. 

"Having obtained this important information, with a strong, fair wind, I hurried back to 
the city and hastily assembled the 
Americans in my office. I aston- 
ished and startled them by the 
news I had obtained. Some of 
them were captains of vessels lying 
down in the roads under convoy, 
and were crazy to get to their ships. 

"The wind, which had been so 
fair to bring me up to the city, was 
now almost a gale against a passage 
down. It was suggested that we 
should all set to work writing a 
circular which I prepared, and that 
a horse and carriage should be pro- 
cured, with which two or three of 
the number should proceed to Mar- 
strand, a seaport a few miles to 
windward, from which, by boat, the 
fleet could easily be reached and the 
circulars delivered to the American 
vessels, warning them unless they 
weighed their anchors and ran up 
the river above the Swedish batte- 
ries, they were liable at any momeni 
to British capture. All parties were 
cautioned to keep strict silence in 
the city until these vessels were se- 
cured. Happily, the expedition to 
Marstrand and thence to the Heet 
was a success, and before the next 
morning the \essels, over forty in 
number, were safe under the protec- 
tion of Swedish batteries, to the great surprise of the British officers 
got into the Yankees that they had all gone up the river." 

In this way, and by his sagacity and energetic promptness, Mr. Smith saved 
from capture, by the British warships which were lying outside, the whole of that 
American fleet. It was a great service to his country, but it was only made possible 
by and on account of the treaty then in force, which had been made b.y the Govern- 
ment of Sweden twenty-nine years before, at the invitation of the then reigning 

King Gustaf III. 

19 




JOHN ERICSSON 

who wondered what had 



The Monitor 

On the occasion of the celebration of the 250th anniversary of the first landing 
of the Swedes on the Delaware, held in Minneapolis, Minn., Sept. 14, 1888, the chief 
orator of the festival, Mr. W. W. Thomas, United States Minister to Sweden, said : 

When our forefathers rose in arms to throw oft the yoke of Great Britain, in that long 
struggle of the revolution, that time that tried men's souls, let not America forget that next after 
our all}', P'rance, it was the gallant Kingdom of Sweden, that, first among the nations of the 
world, recognized our new-born republic, made with us a treaty of friendship, and welcomed us 
into the great sisterhood of nations. 

"We, of this generation, can never forget the incidents of the great American Rebellion, that 
Titanic contest that for four years raged over the continent. We can never forget our bright 
days of victory, nor our dark and gloomy days of defeat and disaster, when everything that was 
dear and sacred to us as a nation seemed trembling in the balance. Shall we ever forget one mem- 
orable morning when the rebel ram, Merrimac, steamed out of Norfolk harbor, and, with lier 
prow of iron, came down upon our wooden walls of defence, hing at anchor at Hampton Roads? 
How cruelly that monster iron-clad gored one after another of our brave ships to the death, while 
the shot from our cannon rattled off her coat of mail harmless as hailstones. How bravely went 
down the good ship Cumberland, with the stars and stripes still floating at her masthead, and with 
three hundred immortals on board, who fired the last broadside as the waters of the ocean poured 
into the muzzles of their guns. Then all was terror and consternation. Telegrams were sent 
from headquarters to New York, Boston and Portland, to all maritime cities: 'The Merrimac 
has escaped. She has broken the blockade. She has sunk the bravest ships of our navy. We have 
nothing that can cope with her. Take care of yourselves; we cannot protect you." 

"I recollect well how the news was received in Portland. How our citizens consulted to- 
gether. How it was proposed to construct rafts of long lumber, and chain them across the har- 
bor, to save, if possible, our beautiful city by the sea from the shot and shell of this rebel mon- 
ster. For a few short hours that rebel ram was 'Mistress of the Seas.' 

"Then what! A little nondescript craft comes steaming in from the ocean, 'a Yankee cheese- 
box on a raft,' it was called in derision. But she steams straight for the ]\Ierrimac, the big tur- 
ret. 'The cheesebox' begins to revolve; the big guns are run out, and the big cannon balls are 
hurled, one after another, with crushing effect against the mailed armour of the Confederate 
cruiser. The contest was long; the fight was hard; but at its close this rebel ruler of the waves, 
crippled, disabled and defeated, was glad to crawl out of the fight, to roam the seas no more. 

"This is all familiar to you as household words; but let us not forget that the inventive geni- 
us who planned and built and gave us the Monitor, that apparently insignificant means of de- 
fence, which in that hour, under God, was the salvation of our navy, our blockade, and our pres- 
tige on the seas — let us not forget, I say, that he, the inventor of the jMonitor, was no American 
born, but the Swede, John Ericsson, the son of a Swedish miner, born and bred in the backwoods 
of old Sweden." 

Of all the nationalities and peoples irho have immigrated to the United States, 
no nation or people has furnished in a single person a man who has done so great 
and important service to the people and government of the United States as John 
Ericsson, the native backivoods man of Sweden. 

20 



Jenny Line! 

From the giim realities of war it is a relief to turn to the gentle arts of the 
sweet singers, who have made us forget for the nonce life's burden and lifted us to 
realms of nobler aims and higher impulses. During the last century Sweden gave 
to the world two of the sweetest singers that ever charmed rapt audiences with 
divine melody, Jenny Lind and Christine Nilsson. 

Jenny Lind was born in Stockholm, October 6, 1820. She received her early 




JOHN ERICSSON BUST, NYBROPLAN, STOCKHOLM 

training in the school of singing attached to the Royal Theatre in Stockholm, and 
made her debut in opera at that theatre in March, 1838, as Agatha in Weber's "Der 
Freischiitz," and made an instant hit; afterward singing Alice in "Robert le Diable," 
and Giulia in "La Vestale," all with brilliant success. In June, 1841, she went to 
Paris and took lessons from Garcia for nine months. Meyerbeer, who happened to 
be in Paris at the time, heard her, was delighted, and predicted for her a billiant 
future. She obtained a hearing at the opera in 1842, but no engagement followed. 
Naturally hurt at this, she is said to have determined never to accept an engage- 

21 



Jenny Lind 



ment in Paris; and, whether that is true or not, it is certain that in March, 1847, 
she declined an engagement at the Academie Royale, nor did she ever appear in 
Paris again. She went to Berlin and studied German, but returned to Stockholm 
in September, 1844, to take part in the fetes at the crowning of King Oscar I. She 

returned to Berlin in Octo- 
ber and obtained an engage- 
ment at the opera, through 
the influence of Meyerbeer, 
who had written for her the 
principal role in his "Feld- 
lager in Schlesien," after- 
ward remodeled as "L'Etoile 
du Nord." She appeared first 
December 15 as Norma, made 
a hit in that character, and 
afterward sang with equal 
success her part in Meyer- 
beer's new opera. In the fol- 
lowing year she sang at Ham- 
burg, Cologne and Coblentz, 
and in Copenhagen on her re- 
turn to Stockholm, enjoying 
everywhere a triumphant suc- 
cess. The next year, 1846, 
she was engaged in Vienna 
and appeared there for the 
first time, April 18, 1846. On 
May 4, 1847, she made her 
first appearance in London at 
Her Majesty's Theatre, as 
Alice in "Robert." Moscheles had already met her in Berlin, and wrote thus of her 
performance in "The Camp of Silesia:" 

"Jenny Lind has fairly enchanted me. She is uniiiue in her ways, and her song, with two 
concertante flutes, is perhaps the most incredible performance, in the way of bravura singing, ever 
accomplished. How lucky I was to find her at liome! What a glorious singer she is and so un- 
pretentious withal." 

Mendelssohn wrote of her: 

"In m\- whole life I have not seen an artistic nature so noble, so genuine, so true, as that 




JENNY LIND 



22 



Jenny Lind 

of Jenny Lind. Natural gifts, study, and depth of feeling I have never seen united in the same 
degree ; and. although one of these qualities may have been more prominent in other persons, the 
combination of all three has never existed before." 

In London she leaped at once to the pinnacle of fame. "The town, sacred 
and profane, went wild about the Swedish Nightingale," says Chorley. Her voice, 
with a compass from D to D, with another note or two occasionally available above 
the high D, was a soprano of a bright, thrilling and remarkably sympathetic quality. 
She was an unrivaled coloratui'a singer, and showed exquisite taste in her cadenza, 
which she usually invented. Her wonderfully developed length of breath enabled 
her to perform long and difficult passages with ease, and to fine down her tones to 
the softest pianissimo, while still maintaining the quality unvaried. One writer 
said about her: "What shall I say of Jenny Lind? I can find no words adequate 
to give you an idea of the impression she has made. We have heard an artist 
who makes a conscience of her art." Next to the great gift of her wonderful 
voice, that was undoubtedly the grand thing about Jenny Lind, "she made a 
conscience of her art." In the smallest town she would put the same zeal, the 
same verve into her singing that she would if she were making her debut in 
Her Majesty's Theatre in London. She never concerned herself about what her 
critics, friends or enemies, would say about her; she put her whole soul into 
her art, and gave the best that was in her, in her best and most powerful man- 
ner, to her audiences, whether made up of lords and princes or of people from the 
humbler walks of life. 

In 1850-52 she visited America under the management of Mr. Barnum. She 
was married to Mr. Otto Gold.schmidt, a German pianist from Hamburg, in Boston, 
on February 5, 1852, and the marriage turned out to be a happy one. Long before 
her marriage she had left the operatic stage and betaken herself to the concert 
hall. "How she sang there," says Chorley, "many of the present generation will 
still remember — the wild, queer Northern tunes brought from her native land — 
her careful expression of Mozart's great airs, her mastery over such a piece of 
execution as the Bird Song in Haydn's 'Creation,' and lastly the grandeur of in- 
spiration with which the 'Sanctus' of angels in Mendelssohn's 'Elijah' was led by 
her. These are the triumphs which will stamp her name forever as one of the 
brightest in the golden book of singers." Her private life was as admirable as 
her public repute ; her generosity was unbounded, her modesty and nobility of soul 
have been the theme of enthusiastic euloiy. She died at her villa, Wynds Point, 
Malvern Wells, England, November 2, 1837. A marble medallion of her head was 
put up in the poets' corner in Westminster Abbey, and unveiled on April 20, 1894. 



Christine Nilsson 



Christine Nilsson was born August 20, 1843, in the parish of Wederslof, near 
Wexio, Sweden, where her father was a small farmer on the estate of Count 
Hamilton. Her first teachers were the Baroness Leuhusen and Frans Berwald in 
Stockholm. She was afterward taken to Paris by the Baroness and studied singing 
under M. Wartel. She made her debut at the Theatre Lyrique, October 27, 1864. 

as Violetta in "La Traviata." 
She made an instant success 
and remained at the Lyrique 
nearly three years, after 
which she came to London 
and made her first appearance 
at Her Majesty's Theatre, as 
Violetta, on June 8, 1867, 
making a great hit, subse- 
quently singing Lady Henri- 
etta and Elvira, but making 
her greatest success as Mar- 
guerite in "Faust." The same 
season she sang at the Crystal 
Palace, and at the Birming- 
ham festival in oratorio, for 
which she was instructed by 
Mr. Turle, the organist of 
Westminster Abbey. On Oc- 
tober 23, she took farewell of 
the Theatre Lyrique by cre- 
ating the principal part in 
"Les Bluets" of Jules Cohen. 
She was then engaged by the 
Academic de Musique for the 
part of Ophelia in Ambroise 
Thomas' "Hamlet," in which she appeared on its first production, March 9, 1868, 
with very great success. 

In 1868 Christine Nilsson reappeared in Italian opera at Drury Lane Theatre, 
London, with the same eclat as before, and added to her repertoire the roles of 
Lucia and Cherubino. In the autumn she sang in Baden-Baden, appearing for the 
first time as Mignon, and in the winter returned to the Academie in Paris. In 
1869 she sang Ophelia in the production of "Hamlet" in Covent Garden, and at 




CHRISTINE NILSSON 

Comtcsse Miranda. 



24 



Christine Nilsson 



Exeter Hall in "The Messiah," "Creatioi," "Hymn of Praise," etc., and returned 
to Paris for the winter. 

From the autumn of 1870 to the spring of 1872, Christine Nilsson toured in 
the United States, singing in opera and concert under the management of M. 
Strakosch. She returned to Drury Lane in London, in the summer of 1872, and 
on July 27 was married to M. Auguste 
Rozaud in Westminster Abbey. From 
1872 to 1877 Madame Nilsson sang every 
season in Italian opera at Drury Lane and 
Her Majesty's, creating Edith in Balfe's 
"Talismano," and Elsa in the production 
of "Lohengrin" at Drury Lane in 1875. 
During the winter and spring of these 
years she sang at the opera of St. Peters- 
burg, Moscow and Vienna. In 1873-74 
she paid a second visit to America, being 
everywhere received with unbounded en- 
thusia-sm. She made her third visit to 
America in 1884. Her first husband hav- 
ing died in 1882, she married Count Casa 
di Miranda, a Spanish nobleman, in 1887. 
Since her retirement from professional 
singing she has made Paris her home, and 
from there makes annual visits to her 
native land of Sweden where she has 
bought farms and presented to the mem- 
bers of her numerous family, making them 
all happy and prosperous. 

The introduction of the above sketch- 
es of the two great singers may not be 
exactly germane to the subject of this brochure, but so many of our younger 
generation have heard the names of these famous singers without knowing the 
particulars of their history (I have heard young people contend that Jenny Lind 
was born in England and was an English woman), that I think it will be a pleasure 
to a great many to learn who Jenny Lind and Christine Nilsson were, what they 
did, and where they came from. 




DR ERIC iNURELlUS 

For sixty years Swedish Lutheran Minister in 

the United States. Tivice President of 

the Augnstana Synod. 



25 



Swedish Immigrants Prosper in United States 



The great adaptability of the Swedes to the circumstances and customs of a 
new country is acknowledged on all sides. Whenever and wherever they have 
transplanted themselves, whether in England in the eighth and ninth centuries, in 
Normandy in the tenth, in Sicily in the eleventh, or in America in the seventeenth 
and nineteenth, the same progress of transformation has taken place. No other 
people in all history have such a record. In the United States they have eagerly 
learned English. Their passion for the possession of land and for the independence 

that goes with it has char- 
acterized them from the 
earliest times, and it is that 
which has made them so 
valuable as citizens of the 
great Northwest, in which 
they have settled so largely. 
Of course they are not all 
land owners. Thousands of 
them have made a record as 
able and skilled mechanics 
in our manufacturing estab- 
lishments, and in every city 
and town we find them en- 
gaged in commercial enter- 
prises and the professions 
with marked success, but 
the great majority are far- 
mers. 

It is an old saying that the 
apple falls not far from the 
tree. For more than forty generations the Swedes have behind them the lives of 
their ancestors saturated with hard work, thrift and economy, and an independence 
that never became the slave of priest, landlord or king. Is it any wonder, then, 
when such a race is transplanted into a richer soil and a more genial climate, that 
they flourish and make for the good of the state in which they have taken up the 
white man's burden? 

An American author, Hendrick C. Babcock, justly remarks: "The hundreds 
of thousands of immigrants from Sweden that have settled in the West and brought 
prosperity to that country, are no longer pilgrims and strangers. They are not 
simply in the better country, they are of it, and of its people. It is to the immi- 

26 




IRA NELSON MORRIS 

United States Minister in Sloekholm. 



statistics of Swedish Immigirdion 

grants of this class and especially thosa from Sweden, Norway and Denmark, 
that the Northwest is largely indebted for its marvelous development." 
/ A glance at the statistics of Swedish immigration into the United States 
during the nineteenth and 
first fifteen years of the twen- 
tieth century, shows that, 
from 1280 to 1915, inclusive, 
1,481,965 persons arrived 
from Sweden and settled in 
I the United States. 

Political economists have 
calculated that each of these 
immigrants is worth $875 to 
the country and that they 
bring with them on an aver- 
age $50 each, which increases 
their value to $925. This is 
admitted to be a low estimate, 
but even thus, it shows an 
addition to the wealth of the 
United States of $1,370,817,- 
625, and a corresponding loss 
to Sweden. 

This is the pecuniary sac- 
rifice that the Swedish nation 
has made to the United States 
during the last century. Swe- 
den in return has gained 
something by money remit- 
tances from her former sons 
and daughters to their rela- 
tives in Sweden, but this does 
not amount to one-twentieth 
part of the value she has lost. 

As individuals the Swedes who have settled in the United States have pros- 
pered and gained immensely by the change ; as a nation Sweden has made a sacri- 
fice that can never be repaid. 

The burden of propagating the Christian religion and civilizing the globe is 




W. A. F. EKEXGREX 

S'lcecUsfi Minister in Washington. 



27 



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28 



Support Christianity and Good Government 

laid upon the white race. The Swedes are an integral part of that race, and 
history proves that in comparison to their number they have performed a large 
share of the work of propagating and defending the gospel light of Christianity. 
In their new home on this continent they prove themselves worthy heirs of noble 
sires by keeping their churches, schools and benevolent institutions, evidences of 
their religious life and activities, well to the front. 

As a testimony to their moral worth, and as propagators of Christianity, let it 
be recorded to their credit that they have built and support over 1,400 churches in 
the United States; that they maintain over 1,000 ministers of the gospel; own and 
maintain several hospitals, a number of orphanages, colleges and seats of learning. 

In all relations of life, political, social and religious, they associate themselves 
with the best elements of native Americans. Are law abiding, peaceful and pro- 
ductive. Towns, counties and states in which they are a considerable part of the 
population are uniformly prosperous. Industrial establishments, schools and 
churches are very much more in evidence in such communities than police magis- 
trates and jails. In the observance and obligations of American citizenship they 
aim at the best type and strive to attain the highest standard that education, faith 
and loyalty can produce. Their particular and great value to the nation is aptly 
expressed in Swift's famous epigram: "Whoever makes two ears of corn, or two 
blades of grass grow upon a spot of ground where only one grew before deserves 
better of mankind and does more essential service to his country than the whole 
race of politicians put together." This is what the Swedish-American farmer has 
done. All honor to his progressive spirit. 



The Swedish Lutheran Augustana Synod represents the majority of Swedish 
church people in America. They own and support 1,100 churches served by over 
700 pastors and ministers of the gospel. 

The value of the church property at the close of 1915 amounted to $12,073,000, 
and the annual expenses for keeping up the church work to $2,235,000. 

The Synod has 300,000 members. Each Sunday 80,000 children gather in its 
Sunday-schools for instruction in the Christian religion. In 500 of the parishes 
summer schools are maintained for a period of eight weeks in which 20,000 chil- 
dren receive instruction in the Sw'edish language. 

The Synod owns and supports ten colleges, with 3,200 students. The value 
of this property amounts to $2,049,797, and the annual expenses to $376,586. 

29 



The Angustana Synod 

For philanthropic and charitable purposes the Synod owns and supports five 
hospitals, two deaconess institutes, two immigrant homes, nine orphan homes, and 
six homes for the aged. The total value of this property amounts to $1,962,512 
and the annual expense of running and upkeep to $495,393. 




30 



In the foregoing brochure I aim particularly to reach the growing 
generation of my countrymen, born in America. There is among 
some of them a tendency to belittle, and in certain cases even to 
despise, their Swedish ancestry and anything that reminds them of 
Sweden. This weakness, not to say folly, is regrettable and due 
partly to ignorance of the history of the race from which they 
sprung, partly to a false pride in being born Americans, which is not 
due to their own merit, but to that of their parents, who have sacri- 
ficed and suffered and labored hard to acquire American citizenship. 
It is a great advantage to any person to be born of good stock, and 
the characteristics possessed by our nationality, hammered into it by \ 
more than twenty centuries of strife with a soil, climate and sur- 
roundings requiring courage, manliness and strength to secure a 
living, are not changed nor lost by a sudden transplanting from one 
country to another. The sturdy independence, the strength of arm,'^ 
of will, and of purpose, is the invaluable heritage that has been 
founded and developed in Sweden, by the physical, religious and 
political conditions of that country, and, bred in the bone, descends 
from father to son through untold generations. This is the power 
of our race which has subdued the woodlands and the prairies and 
made them blossom as the rose; which in every walk of life has 
carried our people to competency and success. To be born of a 
nation having a history like ours, and to be heir to the culture of a 
race as enlightened and progressive as the Swedish, is a boon to any 
individual for which he should be thankful to the Giver of all good 
things, and not affect to minimize or despise the splendid heritage 
thrust upon him. 

By respecting ourselves and our common origin, we gain the 
respect of our neighbors, whoever they may be. By cultivating the 
good in our inheritance and reaching out for the best that education, 
faith and loyalty enable us to possess, we fit ourselves worthy citizens 
of a democracy where individual rectitude is the basis for the stabil- 
ity of the state. 

L. P. N. 



31 



Swedish American Line 

(SVKNSKA AMKRIKA LINIEN) 

Direct Mail and Passensjer Service between New York and Gothenburg, Sweden. 

Daily Connections with All Points in Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Finland, 

Russia, and the European Continent. 

THE LARGEST STEAMER IN SERVICE BETWEEN AMERICA AND SCANDINAVIA 




TWIN SCREW S. S. "STOCKHOLM" 

Leii.uth oliri feet; Width GS feet: Displacenient 2-.'.o;0 tmis 

is provided with all modern safety appliances, and every care will he taken to 
give the passengers a safe and comfortable journey. 

Unsurpassed passenger appointments in First, Second, and Third classes. 

Reserve Berths and Secure Tickets Through Nearest Local Agent or 

NIELSEN & LUNDBECK, Ceiieral Passenger A-ents. •> i State Street, Xew York. 
MARTIN MAURD, Cleiieral Western Ai^eiit, 183 Xo. Dearborn Street, Ohieasi'o. 
NILS NILSON='\ (feneral Northwestern Asjent, 127 S. Third St., Miiineapdlis. 
BRATTSTROM & CO., General Paeifie As'ents, 117 Cherrv St.. Seattle. Wash. 
A. HALLONQiJIST, (General Agent. ;i!)(i Logan Ave.. \VinHi|ieg. Man., Can. 
RATES. To Scandinavian Points: 

Kirsl Class, .$10:1 and nii. Sccdnd (.'lass -^SO. TliinI Class ^4!). 

APPLY TO NEAREST AGENCY FOP SAIL1N(; DATES 



*) Mr. Nils Nllson is also general agent in America for The Hweclisli Tourist Societii 
(Svenska Turistforeningen) , the greatest and most successful tourist society in the world, 
with 67,000 members. Its 32nd annual yearbook for 1917 has just been issued, a splendid 
publication of .500 pages and over 300 illustrations of Swedish scenery. By sending $1.10 
to Mr. Nils Nilson, 127 S. Third Street, Minneapolis, Minn., he will at once send a mem- 
bership card and a copy of the book in return. The book alone is easily worth $2.50 in 
the book trade. 



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